Nature abhors a vacuum. So does my cat.

Things I wish I had written: May 2011 edition, A-G

May is almost over, and as always there is more I wish I would have done than was actually done. Some notes on things not written, in the hopes next year will bring another May (chances are good) and that I'll have some of these May stories written before then.

a2b3. I would have loved to have written meeting non-summaries for every lunch meeting, capturing at least who was there, what the question was, how long it took to introduce everyone, how many people where there, and who the new people were. Some of this should be ritualizable, with a clipboard and a form? (Noted: printable sign in sheets; Crowdjuice, for signups in advance with a social matchmaker function.)

Ann Arbor City Council. Every month I read the news, and there's always someone referring to some document but not producing it for inspection. The story that needs the document, in this case the map, is the maps for the proposed marijuana ordinance; I tracked them down but haven't published them yet. (School buffer zones, a2docs)

Arborwiki. Every month deserves at least one wiki posting, and this month I find myself wishing I had written down the simple rule of copy editing with wiki: always link to anything in boldface or caps, and if it doesn't exist, make it exist by fixing the spelling or creating the page.

Blogger's Secret. This section is not sure whether it's a whole weblog or just some random notes, and if it is a weblog it should certainly be written with the thought that there's some non-zero byproduct from the work. The message is simple (write twice a day about one thing), but that's a heck of a lot of work to keep up and do anything else.

Chicago. Why do I have a whole Chicago category, but don't get there more often? One or the other of those should be fixed. (And ask, since Detroit is so much closer, why the Detroit category is not more full; ditto Lansing.)

Community Television Network. I'd love to have told you about the time I spent getting trained to use the equipment there to produce some good old-fashioned public access television shows, but somehow the training hasn't happened yet.

Coworking. There's a very good story about how various coworking spaces are the same and how they differ, but to tell it right I want to visit more of them. I do need to also write more about the Workantile Exchange, the downtown coworking club I am a part of.

Dioxane. Our favorite plume generates slow-moving controversy, when data about how it is being monitored becomes less accessible.

Farmers Market. I'd love to post pictures every week, and I want to get to the Wednesday night market which starts June 1.

Fishing, floods. There were stories of people running into carp on bike paths, people fly fishing for carp, and more hot carp action during the latest Huron River floods. Pictures please!

Great Weird Ideas. No end to them; the question is managing them, or at least corralling them so that you can set them aside and get back to the modest ordinary tasks that you need to for the day. Thus this wish list stops at the end of this section, ignoring H-Z for now.